The Flu
by YonderB
Summary: Near is sick, and Mello grudgingly looks after him... Getting a special something in return. Bad summery.


Near lay on his bed, the covers pulled up to his chin, his tiny pale feet sticking out from under it.

Near was sniffing and snorting, groaning and choking, coughing and barfing.

He was not having a good day.

Near snaked a small hand from under the covers and grabbed a tissue, placing it to his red and tender nose.

He'd had this flu for three days strait. The first day was _hell_, and he was slowly getting better, but it was still horrible.

The door swung open, suddenly flooding the room with blinding light.

The white-haired boy whined as loudly as his swollen throat would allow, throwing his blanket over his head to shield himself from the light.

The door clicked closed again and the sound of bare feet tapped over to Near's bed.

"Roger told me to look after you." said an all-too-familiar voice, which didn't sound too happy.

Near sniffled unhappily against his crumpled tissue and pushed it out of the bed, making it roll from under the covers and land in the bin that was already overflowing with tissues.

"Oi!"

The person standing beside Near's bed jabbed him hard in the chest.

Near squeaked, but immediately regretted it when his throat throbbed.

"Get out." snapped the voice.

Near hesitantly poked his head out from the safety of the covers, the covers still covering from his nose down, staring with wide, watery eyes at the blonde bob of hair that was standing over him.

"More." snapped Mello, glaring down at the pathetic Near in the bed.

Near hesitantly pushed the covers down until they were only up to his chin.

Mello sighed, taking in Near's red nose, clammy skin, watery eyes and rumpled hair, undoing a small bottle that he was holding in his hand.

"Wh--" a rather thick sniff "--What's _that_?"

"Stuff that's gonna help you breathe properly." Mello said shortly, placing the lid of the small brown glass bottle on the bedside table before dipping his index finger into the opening of it.

Near got a glance at the label of the bottle, even though his eyes really hated being open at the moment. "Eucalyptus oil?"

Mello nodded, placing the bottle on the bedside table before grabbing Near by the shoulder roughly, making the latter squeak again.

Mello tugged the bedcovers down, pushing his oily hand down Near's collar of his shirt.

Near squeaked yet again.

Smearing some of the eucalyptus oil onto Near's searing hot chest, Mello removed his hand after a moment, covering Near's nose with it a moment later.

Near's stinging eyes widened, but he made no move to do anything. Not even breathe.

"Breathe in until i tell you to breathe out." Mello growled.

Near hesitantly breathed in through his stuffy nose, his brow furrowing at the odd sensation, his eyes fluttering closed.

It felt like cool rods of mist was dancing down his throat, cooling the throbbing skin and gathering in his lungs, softly soothing the hot flesh.

He couldn't smell the scent of the eucalyptus oil because of the flu he had, but he didn't mind.

Suddenly, when he couldn't breathe in anymore, he snapped open his eyes, fixing them on Mello.

"Don't breathe out _until_ i say." Mello growled.

Near's eyes watered.

Three and a half seconds passed.

"Alright." Mello sighed, his eyes narrowing.

The blonde only just whipped his hand away as Near coughed desperately, bringing his own hands up to cover his mouth, the long white sleeves covering everything except his thin fingers.

Mello watched as Near coughed dryly and spastically, his back hunched over, his knees jerking up, his face pressed desperately against his sleeve cuffs that were covering his hands, eyes tightly closed.

Near's coughing slowly subsided, but he didn't remove his face from his hands.

Mello poked him in the shoulder, and Near finally looked up.

Mello wrinkled his nose in disgust.

There were a few strings of god-knows-what connecting Near's mouth to his sleeves, which had a white-yellow gooey substance sticking to the material.

Mello grabbed a tissue and wiped at Near's mouth none too gently, then at the sick-child's sleeves, only just getting the phlegm off the white fabric.

"Next time use a tissue." Mello muttered, dropping the phlegm-y tissue into the bin beside Near's bed.

Near's head bowed.

Dipping his finger into the oil again, Mello shoved his cold had down Near's shirt again, making the boy jump as Mellow smeared some of the oil against his chest.

Near stared up at Mello as he placed the oily hand over the boy's nose again.

Near breathed in hesitantly.

The sensation was just like the last, numerous wafts of cool air soothing his throat and pooling in his lungs.

When Near was going to breathe out, Mellow was ready, swapping his hand for a tissue and pressing it against the boy's nose and mouth in a split second.

The coughing was slightly worse than before, Near clutching Mello's wrist for some kind of support as he coughed, his whole body shaking.

Mello removed the tissue from Near's mouth after he was finished coughing for the moment, hearing the young boy sniffle and groan.

Squinting down at the tissue, which had a rather large glob of the gooey white-yellow phlegm in it, Mellow frowned. "You had another blood nose, didn't you?"

Near pulled the bed covers slightly closer to him.

"That's the fourth one in two days." Mello muttered off-handedly, frowning down at the phlegm which had a swirl of Near's blood in it, before scrunching it up and dropping it in the bin.

Near sniffed loudly and thickly, then suddenly whipped around, grabbed a tissue, clapping it over his nose and grabbing a few more with his other hand.

Mello stared at the tissue as it slowly turned scarlet. "Roger is gonna have to get the doctors to have a look at that." Mello commented.

Near made a frightened noise in the back of his throat.

Mello grinned. "Yep! The doctors are gonna have to get a _blow-torch_ and cauterize those capillaries!" Mellow cheered, his eyes sparkling.

Mello's grin got wider when he saw Near squirm uncomfortably. Near never did like doctors.

After Near stopped bleeding, Mellow shoved his oily hand in Near's face again, Near sighing and breathing in.

Eventually, after half an hour, Near could actually breathe through his nose without much trouble anymore.

Near watched as Mello wiped the oil vigorously off his hand and onto his bed covers, before the blonde capped the oil bottle again, Near rolled onto his stomach to get comfortable, a pale leg falling from under the quilt and over the edge of the bed.

Mellow grabbed Near's escaping leg by the ankle, shoved it unceremoniously under the quilt again and stomped back out of the room, the oil bottle swinging from his fingertips, his other hand scratching at his rump.

Near hid his eyes under his arm as Mello opened the door, flooding the room with light, before the door clicked closed again, leaving a soft silence in the room other than Near's slightly harsh breaths

The next morning, Mello awoke to the sound of his bedroom door closing.

The blonde frowned, burying his nose into his pillow, his legs stretching out under the quilt, deciding to ignore the sound he thought he heard.

Feeling something bump against his foot, Mellow's eyes fluttered open.

_THLUMP_

It seems he kicked whatever was sitting on the end of his bed, off the bed.

Mello frowned into the darkness and let out a vague growl-like groan. It was too damn _early_ for this!

Ducking his head under his bed covers, ignoring his clown clock, which was glowing eerily in the corner, telling him it was 3am, Mello turned around, so his feet were up the pillow-end of his bed, and crawled lazily down his bed until his head poked out.

Mello found himself staring blearily over the edge of his bed to see a large, but thin, white package lying on the ground at the end of his bed.

Mello frowned and dragged a finger down the white wrapping paper, feeling for the texture of the present-thing, then froze.

He knew that texture!

Suddenly wide awake, Mello's other hand shot out and pressed against the wrapping paper, feeling the same texture all over the present.

"Oh my god!" Mello gasped, picking up the present and looking for a card, but there was none.

Mello saw in one corner, written in a calm, easy font was '_Thank you for looking after me, Mello. I'm sure you'll like this._'.

Grinning like a lunatic, Mello tore open the wrapping and stared with sparkling eyes at the purple wrapping that concealed his prize.

Near heard a loud, shriek-like whoop of happiness echo from Mello's room as he climbed back into bed, rubbing his red nose and smiling.

He knew Mello would love a four-kilogram chocolate bar.

((END. i have the same flu as Near does in this fic, and i was told to inhale eucalyptus oil. i found it rather weird, and wondered if i could put the feeling into words, thus, that's where this comes from. my first try at writing Near-chan and Mello, so be nice! waaai!))


End file.
